Haryana government plans to amend Land Consolidation Act to ease acquisition

Haryana may soon ease its land acquisition policy by offering reluctant landowners land of similar value in the same district in lieu of their land.Raghav Ohri | ET Bureau | September 09, 2015, 14:30 IST

Haryana may soon ease its land acquisition policy by offering reluctant landowners land of similar value in the same district in lieu of their land.NEW DELHI: Haryana may soon ease its land acquisition policy by offering reluctant landowners land of similar value in the same district in lieu of their land to avoid forcible evictions.

The state plans to amend the Land Consolidation Act to pave way for speedy and mutually beneficial land acquisition rules, based on recommendations of a committee of senior bureaucrats and legal experts, a senior government officer privy to the development said.

At present, if the state intends to acquire a large contiguous chunk of land for development purposes and is unable to achieve due to a handful of unwilling landowners, it has no option but to initiate acquisition proceedings, which is perceived as draconian.

Chief minister Manohar Lal had constituted the expert panel to come up with a viable alternative to make land acquisition friendlier. The committee submitted its report late last week.

It felt that offering land of the same value elsewhere in the same district would convince unwilling landowners to agree to give up their existing land. The suggested solution is also expected to put an end to adversarial litigation, undue delay caused in acquisition of land and unrest among landowners.